axeman wrote:
"John McGaw" wrote in message
.. .

Wolf Kirchmeir wrote:

Chuckie wrote:

In the northeastern part of the country we had a beautiful warm day
thursday, it was amazing.
This gave me a day to some yard work that I did not get to lst time it
was this warm(november)
I now, am looking forward to spring which will not come fast enough.
Though the most snow that we have had in this area was about three
inches.
So we are probably due for some, though today may be my lucky day.
Chuckie in the frozen north, zone 5


I am not so happy about these warm spells, especially the ones that come
later on. They throw all kinds of timings out of whack. Plants and
critters use both temperature and light levels to start their spring-time
reawakening processes. These two triggers have been pretty well in synch,
but are now becoming desynchronised, with increasingly nasty effects. The
further north you go, the worse it is, but the bad effects are sowly but
surely showing up further south.

Example: Last year (2004/05) and late-winter thaw lasted a few days too
long, thus stimulating my roses to wake up. Then we had the usual "real"
winter weather, so that I lost three roses. They were supposedly the
hardy ones, too. A less hardy tea rose survived, perhaps responds more
slowly to increased temperatures.

I don't think Zone 5 is "the frozen north", BTW. :-)

Certainly true here. We've had really bizarrely warm weather through parts
of December and now into January. Above 60F repeatedly. I was out adding
mulch to some beds yesterday and found that I have many bulbs sprouting
along with the Hemerocallis. I'm thinking of taking a shot at overseeding
part of my rear lawn if this keeps up.


I have peonies breaking through, as well as some crocus. I had the same
thought about overseeding!

My rosemary is in bloom again today and I saw ground ivy in bllom yesterday.

Kate in Nashville, TN (not so warm right now though)